Six Months Later, September 11 Still Puzzles

by Mychaylo Prystupa

“Did you know someone who perished in this disaster?”

“Yes,” sniffed the elegantly dressed tearful woman, “My roommate was killed.” With firefighters working busily below, she pointed upwards and across the former World Trade Center site. “She worked there, in the North Tower at Cantor Fitzgerald. I also have another friend who lost 200 co-workers that day.”

I came to New York City to absorb the aftermath of September 11, six months after the attacks. As expected, emotions are still raw. 3,113 innocent people, through no fault of their own, lost their lives in New York, Washington and in neighbouring Pennsylvania. As one NYPD officer patrolling Ground Zero commented, “They were just people who kissed their spouses, dropped off their kids, and made their way to work. An hour later they were all dead. Why? Not because of their colour or religion – but because they were American citizens.”

You can’t walk away from Ground Zero without a tremendous sense of sympathy for the families of those lost, and an understanding of America’s resolve to root out terrorism. The destruction and loss is a major and permanent scar on the United States, more so for the city of New York. Not since World War II has mainland U.S.A. known insecurity at this level.

This disaster has awakened many Americans to the depth of anti-U.S. sentiment around the world. Who can forget the images of Palestinians, a people with no direct link to the disaster, gleefully dancing in the streets just hours after the destruction? What’s more, how could this hatred run so deep so as to motivate more murderous individuals to kill thousands in a so-called Jihad?

There are no easy answers. Although unfashionable to contemplate, I’ve personally struggled with how much responsibility I pin on the U.S. itself for this tragedy. While virtuous elements exist everywhere in the U.S., the American projection of influence is often hated in the world. Most contentiously, the U.S. controls much of the world’s resources (energy, minerals, capital) through its transnational corporations, and limits many countries’ economic independence. Secondly, America has long supported Israel in the Middle East conflict by providing direct financial and military support, and thereby stirring deep resentment among Arabs. Thirdly, American popular culture projects values that offend many traditional societies. The U.S. is often viewed as an uncaring, excessively individualistic, materialistic, and violent society. It's not surprising that American influence is often an unwelcome force.

So then what caused the September 11 attacks? While academics will debate it for decades, at some point a madman snapped over American influence in the Arab world, and decided to push back. Osama bin Laden found a receptive audience for his plans among disenfranchised religious extremists who blame the U.S. for their countries’ woes. Without a conventional army, they resorted to terrorism with catastrophic results.

Yet, while I can empathize with a marginalized people sick of being pushed around, I can never accept methods of violence against innocent people. For this reason, the acts of September 11 were undeniably cowardly, evil, and unjustifiable. Six months later, this still remains true.